Key concepts in a framework for analysing visual landscape character

Abstract A transparent and theory-based scheme for analysing visual character is presented. Based on a literature review, nine key visual concepts are identified: stewardship, coherence, disturbance, historicity, visual scale, imageability, complexity, naturalness and ephemera. The nine visual concepts are presented in a framework of four levels of abstraction, described through the concepts' visual dimensions, landscape attributes contributing to the concepts and potential visual indicators suggested for mapping and quantifying the concepts. Each of these concepts focuses on different aspects of the landscape important for visual quality, where visual quality is an holistic experience of them all. The visual…

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  Federal Highway Administration